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Fire Protection in Cold Storage Occupancies

It is often assumed that fire risk in cold storage is less hazardous then in heated storage situations. While ambient temperature in cold storage is a factor in both ease of ignition and fire growth, fire losses in cold storage can be significant due to a host of factors including highly combustible insulation, lack of effective fire protection systems and other factors such as delayed notification of a fire and delayed fire service access.

The reliability of automatic sprinkler systems for these occupancies is limited by factors such as ice accumulation, damage to piping, freezing of systems, inadequate maintenance leading to tripping of systems and other factors.

The requirements of NFPA 13 to address reliability are significant and relatively complex to the uninitiated.

Aleks Hoffman of Viking Fire Protection who has served inn various NFPA committees including NFPA 13, will highlight recent developments to address the challenges of cold temperatures and design requirements to incorporate in automatic sprinkler system design in order to minimise system failures.